College students feel how prices have risen these days when they try to rent a house. It is very difficult for students to get a place around the colleges. Rent for a studio apartment equipped with all kinds of home appliances such as washing machine, air conditioner and rest room is too high for most students. Even the relatively cheap mini studio apartment is so narrow that it is difficult for an adult to lie on the floor. Therefore, it is very difficult to get a comfortable room for reasonable rent. Currently, the average monthly rent for a 16.5ß≥ studio apartment located near or around a university ranges from 400,000 to 500,000 won with a security deposit of 10 million won. It is said that the landlords of houses located around the universities are colluding each other to raise their rents. For example, in the residential area around Hanyang University, the monthly rent has risen by 30% in the past three years. The discount benefits given to students who vacate their room during vacation has also been removed.

Another heavy burden on college students is the high fee for lessons in private institutes. The current economic recession has made it necessary for students to study English and other subjects at private institutes in order to pass exams to get licenses or a job. According to the result of “Private Education Fee for getting Job” research conducted with 812 college students in June by Job Korea, a web site for job placement, 61.5% of students responded that they were taking private lessons at private institutes to get jobs and showed that the average per-student fees for lessons at private institutes had more than doubled in 8 years, from 1.27 million won in 2003 to 2.65 million won in 2010.

Notwithstanding the skyrocketing education fees, the Gangnam area where a lot of famous private institutes are located is crowded with college students who are eager to study more to get high scores for the job market. Even though the fee level depends on the frequency and time of the lesson, the fee for average TOEFL classes having five classes a week ranges from 450,000 to 500,000 won while that for the weekend class amounts to 250,000 won. On the other hand, to get MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) license, students shall pay the lesson fees ranging from 240,000 won to 500,000 won for weekend lessons. The monthly fee for the private institutes which provide the special computer program lessons such as for the CAD(Computer Aided Design) exceeds 1 million won.

Due to the fast rising prices, college students feel burdened even to buy a meal. In the college streets near Ehwa Woman’s University and Hongik University, the cheap restaurants disappeared a long time ago due to the high rent and instead, famous franchise restaurants replaced them, charging high prices. This same phenomenon is observed on the streets in front of KMU.

According to “Price Information” posted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the price of Ddeonjang jjigae baekban (Korean Soybean Paste Stew) ranges from 3,500 won to 4,000 won in Gwanak-gu while it is 4,000 to 5,000 won in Jeongreung 3-dong, Seongbuk-gu. One cup of Americano coffee, which students enjoy after a meal, is 2,000 won at the coffee shop inside KMU while it costs 4,000 won on average on the streets in front of Hongik University, Seogyo-dong.

As inflation is so high as described above, living expenses for students have risen rapidly. According to the result of a research conducted in June of 3,000 male and female college students nationwide by Alba Cheonguk, a part-time job website, 52.7% of respondents said that their expenses rose over the previous year. This figure is more than double the 25.4% found in the same research conducted in 2009. This result showed that most of the expenses were concentrated on eating-out (27%) and entertainment (24.8%).

University students are the rising generation who are going to participate in social activities and economic activities in the near future. However, due to soaring commodity prices and commercialized college customs, college students are suffering from living expenses. The government should look at the long term and try to resolve these symptoms.

Park Jin Ah, Editor in Chief
skypark@kookmin.ac.kr